Monday, May 21, 2007

A Big Blizzard

A weekend of weather!

After the coldest April on record, the latter half of last week saw brisk winds and a heat wave of a tropical -5C! Saturday was fairly indifferent - too little light for kiting, so plenty of work done on the Winter Present. That evening we celebrated Brian's 40th birthday, but I retired early having to be at work for 9:00 on Sunday.

The day started with a moderate breeze, but this rose to gale force (34 knots) by lunchtime. By the time I struggled from the Simpson for dinner, gusts were peaking at nearly 50knots and whirling snow reduced visibility to about ten metres! Naturally, I suffered in the name of art and dug out the camera.

Stills images don't really capture the full power of the storm, but the video did. It'll be on MySpace soon. In the mean-time, there's this:


Storm Force Winds

This was the strongest storm I've seen so far and it really gave an idea as to how inhospitable this continent can be. Although the buildings were baking hot from the recent heatwave, the rocking motion and vibrations were a constant reminder of what was going on outside. I was grateful to see clear skies and a dropping wind at the midnight met-check.

in total contrast, today was cloudless, cold and still, so I enjoyed a complete ski round the perimeter in the noon twilight.

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